Is WPAT changing it's branding?

[101.9 La Kalle]

For the past few years, Amor has been aiming for a Dominican audience, like their sister station Mega, it has gone so far to the point where they have basically dropped Spanish Adult Contemporary, and even a whole hour dedicated to bachata. It's basically La Mega, but with a few Rancheras. Is a rebrand coming? I can see Ritmo, Zol or even Zeta being a good name for the station.

 

[DavidEduardo]

For the past few years, Amor has been aiming for a Dominican audience, like their sister station Mega, it has gone so far to the point where they have basically dropped Spanish Adult Contemporary, and even a whole hour dedicated to bachata. It's basically La Mega, but with a few Rancheras. Is a rebrand coming? I can see Ritmo, Zol or even Zeta being a good name for the station.

Why would they want to change the format and name? That means a huge initial expense and total loss of revenue for quite a few months and then, if the new format works, a slow build up to the desired income level.

Half the Nielsen PPM Hispanic sample in the market is Dominican, so obviously that is the primary target of any station in Spanish.

And, finally, the idea of a "Spanish adult contemporary" format is pretty much dead. If you play the traditional big stars, the audience will be in its 50's and 60's and there are few if any Spanish language ad buys targeting 50 and over.

 

[101.9 La Kalle]

Why would they want to change the format and name?

I don't mean change the format, just the branding. They aren't anything romantic at this point, they are more like a soft La Mega.

Half the Nielsen PPM Hispanic sample in the market is Dominican, so obviously that is the primary target of any station in Spanish.

Ah, I thought it was split between Dominican and Puerto Rican.

And finally, the idea of a "Spanish adult contemporary" format is pretty much dead. If you play the traditional big stars, the audience will be in its 50's and 60's and there are few if any Spanish language ad buys targeting 50 and over.

Spanish Adult Contemporary has been dying since 2000, but it really died in 2010.

 

[DavidEduardo]

I don't mean change the format, just the branding. They aren't anything romantic at this point, they are more like a soft La Mega.

That would confuse ad buyers a lot, and cause them to think that the format had changed.

Ah, I thought it was split between Dominican and Puerto Rican.

The Spanish dominant sample has very few Puerto Ricans in it, as the migration from the Island to New York ended in the late 60's and the group advertisers want to reach are 18-49 or 25-54. Puerto Ricans in that age range are second or third generation and generally don't use Spanish language media.

Spanish Adult Contemporary has been dying since 2000, but it really died in 2010.

But it has always been a heavily gold based format so even if there is little new music, it can be sustained. Look at KLVE in LA, which is a modified Spanish AC and is the #1 Spanish language station and, recently, the #1 overall 18-49 and 35-54 station in LA:

 

[AlNYC]

The audience of the highest rated artists played on 93.1 Amor are:

Luis Fonsi
Aventura/Romeo Santos
Tito el Bambino
Shakira
Alejandro Sanz
Juanes
Enrique Iglesias
Maná
Ricky Martin
Juan Luis Guerra 4.40
Jennifer Lopez
Daddy Yankee
Don Omar
Marc Anthony
Victor Manuelle
Carlos Vives
Ricardo Arjona
Gilberto Santa Rosa
Son by Four
Monchy & Alexandra
Becky G
Jesse & Joy

The audience of the lowest rated artists doesn't play on 93.1 Amor anymore are:

Fanny Lú
David Bisbal
Aleks Syntek
Sin Bandera
Paulina Rubio
Chayanne
Marco Antonio Solís
Gloria Estefan
RBD
Obie Bermúdez
Cristian Castro
Thalía
Alejandro Fernández
Olga Tañón
India on Balada
Luis Miguel
Charlie Zaa
Jerry Rivera on Balada

 

[DavidEduardo]

The audience of the highest rated artists played on 93.1 Amor are:

These are not"highest" and lowest "rated" artists.

First, stations do not program "artists". They program songs, one by one. Some artists have lots of big popular songs, some have just a few and some have none among the station's target audience. And those big artists also have some songs that test terribly and do not get played.

SBS tests its music against the kind of listeners they want to attract based on their age, gender, country of origin or heritage, use of terrestrial radio, etc.

All the artists you listed as being "highest rated" have current or recent era big, high scoring hits. The artists you list as "low rated" don't have songs that test well today.

Also, you will note that a beg percentage of the artists that are played less are from Mexico, and it's very possible that they just don't score as well among the Dominican target audience of the station.

 

[Barry]

I don't notice any significant changes in the sound of Amor, and disagree with the OP. To me, it sounds very different from La Mega, both in terms of the music, and the presentation. And they still have the bachata hour.
BTW, they've had a silent HD2 for a couple of months. Anyone know if there are plans to use it with a translator?

 

[DavidEduardo]

BTW, they've had a silent HD2 for a couple of months. Anyone know if there are plans to use it with a translator?

Scott Fybush could contribute more about translators, but my impression is that there is nothing available in Manhattan, the Boroughs or the Hispanic suburbs.

Further, based on the original 600 watt HBC / Univision FM on the USB, a translator is just not strong enough to penetrate the high density high-rise and apartment dwellings of the Hispanic areas of NYC, and would be useless.

Univision's recently sold Long Island Class A had several translators. They did absolutely no good at all in increasing audience.

 

[Barry]

based on the original 600 watt HBC / Univision FM on the USB, a translator is just not strong enough to penetrate the high density high-rise and apartment dwellings of the Hispanic areas of NYC, and would be useless.

Univision's recently sold Long Island Class A had several translators. They did absolutely no good at all in increasing audience.

Of course, HD2/3/4 channels are often intended for different audiences than the primary signal. For example, in New York hip-hop station WWPR 105.1 has an HD2 that broadcasts in Russian. Classic hip-hop WXBK 94.7's HD2 is the continuation of New York's Country. Hot A/C WNEW 102.7 offers smooth jazz on its HD2.

 

[lanceventa]

Univision's recently sold Long Island Class A had several translators. They did absolutely no good at all in increasing audience.

You're conflating translators and boosters. 92.7 had boosters to improve its coverage within the fringes of the city. A translator is a signal on a different frequency and the poster was asking about using an HD subchannel to feed it.

 

[DavidEduardo]

You're conflating translators and boosters. 92.7 had boosters to improve its coverage within the fringes of the city. A translator is a signal on a different frequency and the poster was asking about using an HD subchannel to feed it.

Funny, I never realized that. All the staff called the additional signals "translators".

By the time they had done that, I had specifically said that I could not help with that signal, mostly based on the national origins of the Hispanics in the better coverage areas.

What I did know is that with or without them, the ratings were not improved. And they certainly did not enhance the signal in the fringe areas they were supposed to serve, based on actual ZIP code analysis of the meager ratings 92.7 got.

 

[DavidEduardo]

Of course, HD2/3/4 channels are often intended for different audiences than the primary signal. For example, in New York hip-hop station WWPR 105.1 has an HD2 that broadcasts in Russian. Classic hip-hop WXBK 94.7's HD2 is the continuation of New York's Country. Hot A/C WNEW 102.7 offers smooth jazz on its HD2.

I was thinking more of the use of a translator to enhance the coverage of a suburban Class A in the central zone. But Lance tells me those were booster, not translators. I had mentally written off any low power facility in the area based on the original WCAA facility which could not penetrate anything.

And HD signals are seldom available in homes, and most central zone Hispanics in the metro don't have / use cars, so there is just about zero potential with a Spanish language HD 2 or beyond.

 

[Weiserguy]

92.7 is and always has been a Class A, and was intended to be a suburban signal covering mostly Nassau County, plus adjacent areas of eastern Queens, western Suffolk and the southernmost part of The Bronx. In the 60's, as WLIR, it ran a deadly dull AOR (All Over the Road) format, and in summer 1970 launched a real rock format, evolving into the modern rock that many Long Islanders remember. That format superserved Nassau and surroundings, which allowed them to survive and (eventually) thrive despite living in the shadow of NYC stations like WNEW-FM and WPLJ, and a buttload of drama inside the station.

With all due respect to David, whoever was involved in the purchase decision was the bigger fool, in thinking that signal could ever service the Hispanic-dominant concentrations of NYC. Nassau has had a population of around 1.3-1.4 million since I was a kid there, but in 2010 only about 15% was Hispanic/Latino. Yes, some of the South Bronx, swaths of Queens, a little of Brooklyn could receive it, but a listener needed to really want to hear 92.7 in the rest of the city to put up with the splashover from 92.3 and 93.1, or have a highly selective receiver. Moving the transmitter a few miles west to North Shore Towers wasn't going to even solve that problem. In New Jersey, WOBM out of Toms River dominated, and in most of Suffolk, Connecticut stations stomped on them. Which leaves you with Nassau County, which demographically had more Jews (until very recently) than Hispanics. There was a reason 92.7 was licensed to Garden City.

Univision astronomically overpaid for a signal that was never going to work for the outcome they wanted to achieve.

 

[Identnut]

Univision astronomically overpaid for a signal that was never going to work for the outcome they wanted to achieve.

Keep in mind that 92.7 was originally bought to extend the signal of the underpowered WCAA on 105.9.

They flipped it before the acquisition of 96.3, but still.